Strongly worded letter

Well, actually, it’s not as strongly worded as I would like. Today I needed to get an errand done at lunch, and walked by La Senza in the mall. Their ads… Wow. So terrible. A notch worse than what I’ve seen from them in the past.

I thought about walking in and complaining. I ended up sending them a note via email through their web site:

Dear La Senza:
I am writing because your current store advertising is offensive to me. It is my choice whether I walk into your store. But when going through the mall, the images I see are not my choice. If I were in the mall with my young nieces, I wouldn’t want them to see your ads. Thank you for considering a less aggressive, less crass look to your advertising. Young girls have a hard enough time finding self-esteem today. This advertising makes that a lot harder.

I feel only a bit better. It remains true that I wouldn’t want my nieces to see those ads!! So what to do? Just never go to a mall? Craft a route through the mall that avoids their store? Honestly.

Comments

We had a similar close encounter of the publicity kind with La Senza. Ours however, was because my husband was walking through the mall with our 9yr old twin boys. He was appalled that the sign was out in the mall rather than just in the store or store window ( which is bad enough). A strongly worded letter went to the mall manager and two thumbs up from the mom.

Johanne, is there anything we can think of doing? La Senza isn’t going to change unless it hurts their pocketbook. Whether you are concerned about your sons or I am concerned about my nieces–and quite frankly the diminishing of women as purely sexual in general–aka the diminishing of me–there are good reasons to do something, no?

Andrea, Gary’s letter was ignored by the store and the mall. I think any campaign against this would be as big an undertaking as any that social conservatives fight. Feminism let us down regarding the objectification of women because it said it was ok if the woman didn’t mind. The Church said it wasn’t ok. Period. So many left the Church. In the end, we have to instill our values and ideas in the home. That remains my hope, even if I fail.

It’s still a man’s world, and such advertising confirms it. Women may lie to themselves and pretend to be all liberated about posing like playboy kittens, but the reality is that they are turning themselves into eye candy for men’s pleasure and objectification. If those posters help sell underwear to women, it’s because women buy them in the hope of becoming more attractive to men – again, it’s all focused on pleasing the men.

Another thought: La Senza is probably stepping up the sexually aggressive advertising due to the new Victoria’s Secret store at the Rideau Centre. Watch for a race to the bottom on that front.

Malcolm Muggeridge wrote, ‘The orgasm has replaced the Cross as the focus of longing and the image of fulfillment’. We see today that the effects of leaving the Cross, which is truly the entrance to fulfillment and the end of longing, ushers in an unending pursuit that manifests itself even in malls and underwear.

A friend asks: “Isn’t this the same thing people say about graphic abortion imagery?”
My answer:
All but the self-esteem bit, yes.

I support abortion graphic imagery because life is on the line, not because I welcome graphic photos in my day-to-day world.

If graphic imagery (be it abortion-related or war-related) informs me of a crime against humanity, then I begrudgingly accept the message it is teaching.

When the sole purpose of the graphic photos is the objectification of the human body, the sexualization of society, the making of women into nothing more than sexual playthings, as contrasted with saving a life, then that’s a different story.

I see the ‘graphic’ images as the same story either with ‘abortion’ or ‘La Senza’. In each case one is portraying images consistent with one’s worldview. For the ‘La Senza’ advocate the pursuit of fulfillment via sexuality the individual becomes a commodity and leads to the death of the person. For the one promoting pro life images the pursuit of fulfillment via Life the individual is cherished and leads to the person living.